Card. Victor Manuel Fernández
Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Mother of Evangelization Why is Mary the first evangelizer?
Conference for the meeting with Latin American priests, religious sisters and seminarians studying in Rome (12 December 2025).
Mary is the Star of evangelization because today she is the first evangelizer. We could even say that she is the Mother of evangelization. We will seek to base this claim on some precious texts from the Bible and the Magisterium. With Her come Christ and the Spirit Let us begin with Luke 1:39–45, where the visit of Mary to Elizabeth is recounted. Here, Elizabeth’s attitude towards Mary when she receives her is shown. This attitude is important because it is the effect of the action of the Holy Spirit, who moved Elizabeth at that moment: “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry” (Lk 1:41– 42a). And so, filled with the light and fire of the Spirit, she utters three statements. Moved by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth addresses Mary with the same praise she uses for Christ: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Lk 1:42). She recognizes them as inseparable. But immediately afterwards, still moved by the Spirit, she adds: “And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). Why is this granted to me? (“Who am I?”). This attitude of humility and reverence towards Mary is also the effect of the action of the Spirit. And the third statement is: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk 1:45). She praises Mary for her faith and for this reason calls her “blessed.” In the Gospel of Luke, this word does not express a state of mind but holiness: the blessed are those who already have a place in heaven (cf. Lk 6:20–22; Mt 5:3–12). But what does all this have to do with evangelization? Let us note that all this happens to Elizabeth because she has drawn near to Jesus and has been filled with the Holy Spirit. But Jesus came to Elizabeth because Mary, inseparable from Christ, brought Him: “Blessed are you…, blessed” (Lk 1:42). This happens even today, and it often takes place in Latin American popular piety, when an image of Mary visits a home, or draws near to a sick person in the hospital, or when a young person invites a friend to walk together towards a Marian shrine. She, as a mother, gives Christ, and from Him the Holy Spirit flows forth for us. Full of the Gospel Mary evangelizes also in another sense, because she keeps the whole Gospel in her heart. Let us remember that twice the Gospel of Luke says that Mary carefully pondered all these things and kept them in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). Notice the use of two verbs: she kept them, she placed them in her heart as if it were a treasure chest. She also pondered them,
that is, she savoured the meaning, the greatness, the value of everything that Jesus did and said. How beautiful it is that Mary is that living and radiant book, where we can find everything, the whole story of Jesus and its deepest meaning! Thus, in the heart of the Mother there is Jesus, all of his history; there is the entire Gospel, because Mary was a witness to everything, from the Incarnation and the birth, through the whole of his life, up to death on the Cross and the Resurrection. Nothing escaped her; as a good Mother, no detail slipped past her. After thirty years lived together in the house of Nazareth, how many things Mary knows that are not even written in the Gospels—because in truth the most complete Gospel, the only fully integral one, is in the heart of Mary. Mary connects the Gospel to our life But she does not carry within herself only the story of Jesus. She also carries yours. In chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation, where the figure of Mary appears in heaven, it is said that she gave birth to Jesus (Rev 12:5), and at the end she is mentioned as the mother of the “rest of her offspring” (Rev 12:17). That is, for her, Jesus and we—who are the rest of her children—are two inseparable realities. And for this reason she also contemplates your entire story: from the moment you were formed in your mother’s womb, as you grew through childhood and adolescence, every joy and every suffering of yours—everything, from the first to the last instant of your life, is kept in her Mother’s heart, which says to you as she said to Juan Diego: “Am I not here, I who am your mother? […] Are you not under the shelter of my mantle, in the fold of my arms?”[1] For this reason Mary, who has contemplated the Gospel, also keeps in her heart your very concrete life. In this way she can unite the two things: she can bring the Gospel in contact with your life; she can make the Gospel touch your concrete existence. Is this not evangelizing? You might ask how is this all important, but I ask you to pay attention, because it is extraordinarily beautiful. It is important that there be someone who remembers your story. At times you might think that the one who knows everything is your wife, your husband, your sister, your friend. But how many things are there that that person does not know about your story about your doubts, your sufferings? Mary does; she knows and keeps all of this. You yourself forget many things, or they remain in a kind of inner half-light, or you prefer to forget them. It seems that in the end your whole story will fade into oblivion. But she, the Mother, keeps everything in her heart; she safeguards there all that you have lived through and knows well the meaning of every thing and every moment. She does not forget. And for this reason, every time you go to pray, to converse with her, she will be able to understand better than anyone else what you tell her and also what you do not tell her, in the light of the Gospel. For she can read each moment of your life within the context of all that you have lived. Thus, by connecting yourself with Mary, your life receives from the Gospel the light you need to understand your personal journey. Evangelized by the face of the Mother In a mysterious way, without words, through the secret action of the Holy Spirit, without anyone teaching or explaining it to them, many simple people receive the message of the Gospel deep within themselves by looking at Mary, and in this way they are evangelized. For this reason we say that the faithful people do not turn away from Christ, nor from the Gospel, when they stand before her, but are able to read “in this maternal image all the mysteries of the Gospel.”[2] (cf. MPF 77)
The Aparecida Document expressed it as follows, referring to the pilgrim who arrives before an image of Mary:
"Arrival is an encounter of love. The pilgrim's gaze rests on an image that symbolizes God's tenderness and closeness. Love pauses, contemplates the mystery, and rejoices in silence. [...] A brief moment condenses a living spiritual experience."[3] "Contemplate the mystery." Let us see how the Doctrinal Note Mater populi fidelis explains it, offering several concrete examples of what a simple and suffering believer experiences when he finds the Gospel in Mary: “In her motherly face, they see a reflection of the Lord who seeks us out (cf. Lk 15:4-8), who comes to meet us with open arms (cf. Lk 15:20), who pauses before us (cf. Lk 18:40), who bends down and raises us up to his cheek (cf. Hos 11:4), who looks upon us with love (cf. Mk 10:21), and who does not condemn us (cf. Jn 8:11; Hos 11:9). In her motherly face, many of the poor recognize the Lord who “has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:52). Her countenance sings the mystery of the Incarnation. In the face of the Mother who was pierced by the sword (cf. Lk 2:35), the People of God recognize the mystery of the Cross, and in that same face, bathed in paschal light, they perceive that Christ is alive. And it was she, who received the Holy Spirit in plenitude, who sustained the Apostles in prayer in the Upper Room (cf. Acts 1:14).” (MPF 77) That is, without reading or studying the text of Luke 15, in Mary's face they recognize the mercy and tenderness of God the Father. Without reading the text of Hosea 11, looking at Mary, they feel that the Father lifts them to his cheek. Without reading the story of the Passion, in Mary pierced by the sword they read the mystery of the redeeming Cross. Without reading the stories of the resurrection or taking academic courses on the Paschal Mystery, in Mary's face they discover that Christ is alive and that there is hope. Many intellectuals don't understand this, because all of this has a different logic: it is something that happens in a secret, mysterious, mystagogical, symbolic way, which sometimes the person experiencing it cannot explain, but in their encounter with Mary they have been enlightened by the Gospel. This is also why Mary is an evangelizer. Thus, we are faced with an extremely important clarification, fundamental to a healthy Mariology: it's not that God is distant and Mary offers us a closeness that God lacks. Please don't say that. It's exactly the opposite: it's impossible for Mary to be closer to us than the Father, than Christ, than the Holy Spirit. What happens is that in her, in her Motherly face, we can easily discover the closeness of God, who is the One who reaches the deepest intimacy of our hearts. In her, we recognize the love of the Father that the Gospel speaks of, the tenderness of Christ, and the power of the Spirit we read of in the Gospel texts. She is the transparency of our God who is close, merciful, and compassionate, as presented in the Gospel. Mother of grace Mary, however, is not an evangelizer simply because in her we receive the message of the Gospel, but also because with her maternal aid she helps us to welcome it with our hearts and to live it. This is the work of grace, and we ask ourselves what Mary has to do with all this. She cannot merit sanctifying grace for us, because "no one can merit grace first for another, except Christ alone."[4] She herself received grace "in anticipation of the merits of
Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race."[5] However, many doctors have explained that it is reasonable (congruent) for God to listen to an intercession[6] and act by listening to it, because it is his will. For this reason, he can freely wish to pour out his grace by fulfilling the desire of the Mother who prays for her children. In this way the Mother is incorporated into his work, in what is usually called "participatory mediation."[7] This desire for maternal love had a particular strength when she offered her suffering beside the Cross of the one Redeemer (cf. MPF 32). Let us see what is explained by the doctrinal Note Mater populi fidelis : “Through her intercession, Mary can implore God to grant us those internal impulses of the Holy Spirit that are called ‘actual graces.’ These are the aids given by the Holy Spirit that operate even in sinners to prepare them for justification, and that encourage those already justified by sanctifying grace to further growth. It is in this specific sense that the title ‘Mother of Grace’ must be understood. She humbly cooperates so that we may open our hearts to the Lord, who alone can justify us through the action of sanctifying grace […]. This is exclusively the Lord’s own work. At the same time, it does not preclude the possibility that the words, images or various prompts that we receive through Mary’s maternal intercession might help us to persevere in life, to prepare our hearts for the grace that the Lord infuses, or to grow in the life of grace that we have freely received.” (MPF 69) “In this way, Mary carries out a unique activity to help us open our hearts to Christ and to his sanctifying grace, which elevates us and heals us. Whenever she brings us various ‘motions’, these should always be understood as promptings to open our lives to the One who alone works in our innermost being.” (MPF 70) This is why we see her steadfast at Pentecost, accompanying the apostles' prayers so that they might open themselves to the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). She does the same now, not only through her example and intercession, but also through the "words, images, and inspirations" that she, as Mother, knows how to convey to us. We have seen this throughout the history of evangelization. The Mother incarnate in our lives Mary is an evangelizer for yet another reason. Because the weak, the suffering, the poor, and the wounded recognize Mary as one of their own, and for this reason they are not afraid of her, they docilely entrust themselves to her, they allow themselves to be evangelized by her. Let us remember what the Latin American bishops said at Aparecida, that the poor "encounter the tenderness and love of God in the face of Mary." [8] Let us see how the Note Mater populi fidelis explains this: “The people, in simplicity and poverty, do not separate the glorious Mother from the Mary of Nazareth whom we find in the Gospels. On the contrary, they recognize the simplicity behind the glory and know that Mary has not ceased to be one of them. She is the one who, like any mother, carried her child in her womb, nursed him, and lovingly raised him with Saint Joseph’s help, but who also experienced the upheavals and uncertainties of motherhood (cf. Lk 2:48-50). She is the one who sings of God who “has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:53); who suffers with the newlyweds who run out of wine for their wedding feast (cf. Jn 2:3); who knows how to go in haste to lend a hand to her cousin in need (cf. Lk 1:39-40); who allows herself to be wounded, as if pierced by a sword, on account of the history of her people, where her Son is “a sign of contradiction” (Lk 2:34); who understands what it means to be a migrant or an exile (cf. Mt 2:13-15); who, in her poverty, can offer only two young pigeons (cf. Lk 2:24);
and who knows what it means to be looked down upon for coming from a poor carpenter’s family (cf. Mk 6:3-4). The suffering people recognize Mary as walking side by side with them, and so they seek out their Mother to implore her help.” (MPF 78) She not only intercedes for us, so that we can open our hearts to Christ, but she is also a powerful and beautiful sign of the closeness of God, who is truly God with us. She allows us to stop feeling God as someone distant, incapable of understanding and sharing our lives, and in this way she softens our hearts so that the Lord can accomplish his work in us. First and foremost collaborator in the work of Redemption For all these reasons, Mary evangelizes but does not redeem. The Bible very clearly states: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12). The only Redeemer is Christ, and using this word to refer to Mary can overly complicate matters. When we speak of words, titles, or expressions used by the People of God, it is important to clearly distinguish what we call "popular piety"; some groups develop entire arguments to defend certain expressions, and they have the right to do so, but this is not popular piety, because these are not expressions used by the vast majority of the People of God. The simple faithful do not use technical language made up of titles and dogmas, but express their appreciation for Mary in other ways, such as during the pilgrimage to El Rocío in Andalusia where they say: "How beautiful you are!", or in Latin America where they call her "Mamita" or "Mamacita." We don’t have a more beautiful word for Mary: Mother of God, Mother of the Church, Mother of grace, Mother of evangelization: Mother… Nevertheless, let us remember what the document Mater populi fidelis states: “ If this holds true for every believer, whose cooperation with Christ becomes increasingly fruitful to the extent that one allows oneself to be transformed by grace, how much more must it be affirmed of Mary in a unique and supreme way. […] She is the Mother who gave the world the Author of Redemption and of Grace, who stood firm at the foot of the cross (cf. Jn 19:25), suffering alongside her Son and offering the pain of her maternal heart pierced by the sword (cf. Lk 2:35). From the Incarnation to the cross and the Resurrection, she was united to Christ in a way that is unique and that far surpasses any other believer.” (MPF 32) From this it follows that the same document textually maintains that Mary is the "first and foremost collaborator in the work of Redemption and grace." (MPF 22) and that "Mary has a unique collaboration in the saving work that Christ carries out in his Church." (MPF 42) Integral Evangelization But when we speak of Mary and evangelization, we cannot forget that the Church proposes an integral evangelization that does not separate faith from concrete life and the dignity of people. We see this in Mary when, despite receiving the angel's incredible announcement, she ran immediately to help her cousin Elizabeth (see Luke 1:39-40). This is her evangelizing heart, which is not content to give us the best, which is Jesus Christ. As a true Mother full of love, she cares for our entire life, body and soul, and does not separate faith from the advancement of people. We see it also in the attitude of service and compassion she showed at the wedding at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1-11), and today she continues to turn to Jesus to tell him: "They have no wine"
(Jn 2:3). This text shows us Mary as an intercessor, not only for our spiritual needs, but also in the face of the most varied needs of our families. In solidarity with the sufferings of the poor, she praises God because "he has lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things" (Lk 1:52-53). Some pearls from Francis In this final section, we will briefly review some Marian passages from three documents of Pope Francis. In Christus vivit, we find a description of Mary in the Gospel as a Mother concerned for evangelization. It says: "Mary was the girl with a great soul, who exulted with joy (cf. Luke 1:47); she was the young girl with eyes illuminated by the Holy Spirit who contemplated life with faith and treasured everything in her heart (cf. Luke 2:19, 51). She was the restless one, the one ready to set out [...]. With her presence, a young Church was born, with its Apostles going forth to give birth to a new world (cf. Acts 2:4-11)" (ChV 46-47). In Evangelii gaudium, Pope Francis reverses the expression "Mary leads us to Christ" and says something surprising: "At the foot of the Cross, at the supreme hour of the new creation, Christ leads us to Mary. He leads us to her because he does not want us to journey without a mother." (EG 285) That is, Christ wanted all his saving work to have a Mother, a maternal presence and face, and for this reason Christ leads us to her, who "walks with us, shares our struggles, and constantly pours out the closeness of God's love." (EG 286) Finally, in Gaudete et exsultate , she invites us to approach her without fear, always to start again: "She does not let us remain fallen, and at times she carries us in her arms without judging us" (GE 176). For this reason, it continues, "our Mother does not need a flood of words; she does not need us to tell her what is happening in our lives" (ibid). All we need to do is to repeat, time and time again, those words we learned as children. Let's say them together now: "Hail Mary..."
Victor Manuel Card. Fernandez
[1] J.L. Guerrero Rosado, Nican Mopohua: Here it is told... the great event, Cuautitlán 2003, nn. 23, 119. [2] Francis, Ap. Exhortation Evangelii gaudium (24 November 2013), n. 285: AAS 105 (2013), 1135.
[3] Latin American Episcopal Council, V General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate (Aparecida, 13-31 May 2007), n. 259. [4] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 114, a. 6, co. [5] Pius IX, Apostolic Constitution. Ineffabilis Deus (8 December 1854): Pontificis Maximi Acta. Pars prima, Romae 1854, 616: «… the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin» (DH 2803); Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964), n. 53: AAS 57 (1965), 58: «Redeemed in an eminent manner through the merits of her Son». [6] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 114, a. 6, ad 3. [7] St. John Paul II, Charter Enc. Redemptoris Mater (25 March 1987), n. 38: AAS 79 (1987), 411-412; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Const. dogm. Lumen gentium, n. 62: AAS 57 (1965), 63. [8] Latin American Episcopal Council, V General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate (Aparecida, 13-31 May 2007), n. 265.